An Unusual Proposition
by Kira the Great
Summary: Tenten can't get over her jealousy of her teammates, and no matter how hard she trains and competes, it seems she just can't improve. What will happen when she's given an offer she can't refuse? Prequal to Acceptance of Fate, slight TenNeji.


I think the fact that this is on is reason enough for you to believe that I don't own any of these characters.

Lame attempt at a one-shot, I may do a sequel later, but I had to get the idea out.

TenNeji…sort of.

Edit: I have decided (about four paragraphs down) that I will do a sequel :) If not to give me a break from the longer Naruto fic I'm doing…besides…I've wanted to do this one for a while! So, I guess it's a two-shot…but with two different fics? Yeah. I'll go with that.

An Unusual Proposition

Tenten buried her face in the books that littered her desk and dumped out further into her room. Her family had sent her to Konoha to study the arts of the ninja, and so by keeping late hours and training hard during the day, she was slowly becoming a better ninja than she had ever thought possible.

Last year, she had managed to become a Chuunin, and now she was aiming to become a Jounin, just like her idol, Hyuuga Neji.

She didn't know if she loved him or not—theirs was a relationship that was usual of their age-group. They were teammates and they trained together, and more often than not, would criticize Lee and Gai-sensei, if only in a jovial manner.

Tenten rubbed her eyes and glanced at the clock. She groaned. It was three a.m.

She leaned back in her chair and looked up at the ceiling. No matter how hard she studied and no matter how hard she trained, she would never surpass Neji. He was a genius, which gave him the automatic right to being better than her. Not to mention, he was a guy.

She felt her heart sink.

Why did she have to compare herself to him? After all, he was a Hyuuga, one of the finest and most well-known clans in Konoha, and she was…well, she was Tenten. Her family lived outside of the Fire Country—in fact, they lived across the ocean. They had sent her away when she had been just a child, and every now and again, she would hear word of their life and how they were doing, but other than that…nothing. She hadn't seen them since she was five, just before being enrolled at the Konoha Ninja Academy.

And of course, that was when she had met him.

Neji had been very somber, even back then, but his big, round eyes had told of a child who wanted nothing more than to play and have fun as other children did.

She would sometimes follow him home after class and watch as the giant doors of the Hyuuga Estate closed behind him.

Tenten never saw inside of his home, and she never knew who he lived with—at least, not until she had met Hyuuga Hinata and Hanabi. She didn't much care for the shyer girl, Hinata, and hardly knew her younger sister.

It seemed to her that Hinata was spoiled by years of being the prized child of the Main Branch.

But, hell, what did she know?

Tenten had never even met Neji's family.

She stood and walked over to the window, throwing it open and leaning against the sill. She put her chin on her hands and looked up at the moon. It was giant, blank, like Neji's eyes.

Tenten growled to herself—yes, she was boy-crazy, like all of the other girls her age, but why did she have to have a "thing" for Neji? She shook her head and returned to studying.

xxx

Sometime later, Tenten stood again and stretched herself. She looked to the clock and noted that it was five. Time to start training. If she was fast enough, she could beat Neji to the training posts and have the best one for herself.

It seemed so ridiculous to her that she was so competitive, yet so lost on her feelings for the boy. So ridiculous, in fact, that she closed the window and left her apartment to go to the training grounds.

She stood before the giant logs (it seemed she had beat Neji there afterall), where Lee had kicked a thousand times, and where she herself had thrown many sharp objects and aimed true. As far as she knew, there was no Chuunin in Konoha with better aim than she.

Except that damn Hyuuga.

She clenched her fists and ran towards the log, aiming her punch to be as hard as possible. She pictured Neji's face and hit, a _crack_ resounding around her.

She cried out and dropped to the ground, clutching her hand.

She hadn't meant to hit it _that_ hard.

"What are you doing?"

Tenten jumped to her feet and whirled around, her eyes narrowing.

Neji crossed his arms and looked at her. "Well?"

"I can train whenever I want!" she replied hotly. She hadn't meant to be so rude, but damn it, Neji had started it!

"I never said you couldn't," he replied. "But breaking your wrist isn't training. Now you'll have to go see Sakura or a medical ninja for it."

"I don't," she replied coldly. "It's not hurt." Even as she said the words, she winced.

"Prove it," he replied. "Hit the mark."

She growled at him and whirled around, smacking her aching hand against the post and crying out involuntarily.

He shook his head. "Go and see someone about that before it swells."

She didn't move, but stood, thinking about what to do. She could keep training with her other hand and her legs, but even so…

It irked her that Neji was right.

"Go," he said. "I'll make sure no one takes your post."

She shivered.

It was when he was nice to her that she found herself the most confused.

Without replying, she ran from the clearing to find one of the aforementioned ninja. Even though the sun was hardly up, she knew where to find them—the Konoha Hospital.

Upon entering the doors, she looked around, expecting to see someone. When she approached the apparently empty desk, she smirked. The receptionist was sleeping.

"Hey," Tenten said, shaking her with her good hand. "Wake up."

The receptionist jumped and looked up at Tenten. "Yes? Yes? Can I help you, Miss?"

She held up her swelling hand. "I broke my wrist…is there anyone here who can treat it?"

The receptionist nodded and said, "Hold on a minute, I think Haruno Sakura is here right now…" she reached for the phone to page Sakura, and then motioned for Tenten to have a seat.

Tenten looked around the white waiting area impatiently. The longer she stayed here, the more of a head-start Neji had on her.

She began to tap her feet impatiently.

Finally, Sakura arrived. She had dark circles under her green-gray eyes, but smiled when she saw the brown-haired kunoichi.

"Tenten? Is everything alright?"

Though the two of them weren't on very close terms, they did have a sort of mutual respect for one another.

Tenten nodded and replied, "Yeah, just a broken wrist."

Sakura pulled a chair over and sat down, taking the other girls hand into her own. She turned it here and there, asking Tenten if it hurt and where.

After a few moments, she said, "Hold your hand out, palm down."

Tenten did as she was told, and Sakura held her hands over the wrist, green chakra emitting from them.

After a moment, Tenten felt the odd tingling feeling that told her that the bones and sinews were being repaired.

Finally, Sakura nodded and stood up. "I'm going to go get you a brace. Don't use your hand for a little while, and it should be fine."

Tenten nodded and waited for the pink-haired girl to return.

With her hand newly splinted, Tenten left the hospital and headed back towards the training grounds. By the time she arrived, not only had Neji already worked up a sweat, but Lee was there, kicking her favorite post over and over again.

She glowered at Neji, who didn't seem to see her.

For a moment, she considered throwing a kunai at him while he was oblivious to her, but she decided against it. After all, it wasn't the honorable thing to do.

Tenten approached the only remaining post and began to kick it and punch it with her good appendages.

Once she had managed to work up a decent sweat and felt less frustrated, she turned to see how the others were doing.

Much to her dismay, they were gone.

She screamed and kicked the log again, her foot throbbing. She collapsed to her knees and held her head in her hands, the strain of working so hard and not being acknowledged forcing her nearly to tears.

She pulled herself together and pulled some kunai from her pouch and tossed them at the trees, hitting every trunk in the dead center.

She retrieved them and did this for a while to calm herself.

After a few hours, she began to wonder where Neji and Lee had gone. When the sun began to get high, she left for some lunch at the Ramen Stand.

When she arrived, she was dismayed to find that Neji and Lee were already there, devouring their third bowl of the great food.

She stood for a long time, just looking at them, and then, just as she turned to leave, she came face-to-face with Uzumaki Naruto.

"Hey, uh," he paused and then grinned, remembering her name, "Tenten! How are you?"

Upon hearing their teammates names, Lee and Neji turned around, lifting up the tapestries to see better.

"Hey, Tenten," Lee said with a grin, waving his chopsticks. "We were wondering when you were going to show up!"

She glowered at them. "How could you just leave me there like that?!"

"We asked you to come and eat with us," replied Lee, confused. "But you didn't seem to hear us…"

She relaxed, knowing that Lee wouldn't lie to her. She must have just been overworked, to think such things.

Neji had turned away and was ignoring her, so she sat on Lee's other side, while Naruto took a seat beside her and ordered his ramen.

She asked for a simple bowl, the cheapest they had.

Tenten was, actually, very frugal. She didn't have much money, and since her family lived in another part of the world in near-poverty (they were rice-farmers, and happy, but poor), she sent them half of every payment she got for her missions, leaving her with just enough to squeeze by. So, it was no wonder she loved money. When she had extra, she would save it up greedily and then spend it on something that she really, really wanted, especially if it was expensive. She prided herself in being able to work hard and afford the precious treasures she bought.

The old man set the bowl of ramen down in front of her and she began to eat, her stomach growling. As usual, she hadn't noticed how hungry she was until she started eating.

By the time she had finished the bowl, all of the others had gone, even Naruto, leaving his six bowls for the man to clean up.

She set her chopsticks down, feeling sadness overwhelm her.

She returned to the training grounds, finding Lee and Neji there once again.

Approaching one of the logs, she began again to work on her skills. After an hour or so, Lee came over and said, "We're going to go and do the partner training now, come on."

She nodded and wiped the sweat from her forehead, following them from the logs.

She watched as Neji and Lee warmed up against each other, waiting for her turn to work with one of them. By this time, she had left behind her frustrations of that morning, yet they still lingered in her subconscious, ready to surface should something go wrong.

After an hour or so, Lee stopped to catch a breath and Neji turned to her. "Let's go."

She nodded and pulled one of her scrolls from its holster.

As expected, the moment she started to open her scrolls, Neji went into the Kaiten and blocked all of her weapons. She tried everything she could think of: Digging under the ground and around the Kaiten, stopping the rotation with chains, and so on. None of it seemed to work, and the fact that her wrist was in a state of healing wasn't helping.

Finally, after hours of hard work, she collapsed to her knees, breathing hard.

Lee came at Neji without hesitation. They tended to do this—when one was tired, another would jump in and take on the one still standing.

Tenten had yet to be that one.

She leaned against a tree, watching as the sun set, her brown eyes filled with sorrow. She looked back at Neji and Lee, watching as Neji finally managed to keep Lee down.

The Hyuuga adjusted his stance, looking at Tenten, expecting her to attack him.

She shook her head and walked away. "What's the point?"

Neji and Lee both stood up straight, watching as she walked down the hill and towards the city. It wasn't like her to give up like that.

The two of them exchanged glances and, with a shrug, they continued to train. If Tenten didn't want to train, who were they to tell her otherwise?

xxx

"Is this the one?"

"She's not as close to him as we were hoping for, but we know the other one won't give in so easily."

"Then we have no choice."

"She's good enough…"

"She wants to be better than the Hyuuga brat, right?"

"Yeah."

"Can we give that to her?"

"For a price."

xxx

Tenten sat on the roof of her apartment looking up at the empty sky. Tonight was the new moon.

She felt her heart grow heavy.

Without the bright moon there to keep it company, the sky seemed so empty.

She folded her arms over her knees and held her head, closing her eyes.

_I won't cry, I won't cry, I won't cry._

But the tears came anyways.

She hated feeling so weak and helpless—it made her mad. So mad that she held her hurt wrist tighter and tighter, almost willing it to break again. Finally she was forced by the pain to release her grip.

She lifted her head and wiped her eyes, scaling down the roof and reentering her room.

And she froze.

"Hello, Tenten," said the tall, young man, his crimson eyes catching her brown ones.

She couldn't move—frozen to the spot from fear and shock.

"Yes, we know who you are," said the man's partner, his blue skin ashen in the dim light of the city that flowed in from outside.

"We have a proposition for you, Tenten," said the first man.

"W-what…? No, get out!" she cried, reaching for one of her scrolls, only to find that it was gone. She looked up at them, confused, her brown eyes wide. Her lower lip was trembling as she searched the room with her eyes for something to defend herself with.

Even so, she couldn't move.

Her eyes shifted back to the ninja, taking in the black capes with the red clouds, the red eyes, the black hair…she knew who he was, if only from rumors that had followed the younger-classman Uchiha Sasuke around for his entire life.

Uchiha Itachi.

She didn't know who the blue-man was, but his round, cold eyes told her he was not someone she wanted to cross.

"I'm afraid we can't do that," said Itachi after a long time, as if he had been seriously thinking her demand over.

"W-why are you h-here?" she managed through her dry throat. "What d-do you want with m-me?"

"Actually, we want to help you," said Kisame, Itachi's partner. "We have a...proposition for you."

"I refuse!" she said, as if this should have been obvious.

"Without even hearing what we're offering you?" asked Itachi. "What a poor choice on your part."

She shook her head, trying to force him out of her mind, trying to make it all go away, trying to make it turn into a bad dream.

"Tenten, if you say no, we'll have no choice but to kill you," said Kisame. "Now, you wouldn't want that, would you?"

She swallowed, but refused to look back at them.

"Tenten, look at us," said Itachi, and as if she was being pulled by strings, she looked up at them. The gaze of Itachi's eyes was so intense that she found herself now unable to look away. "Now, I will give you the proposition: We will give you what you want most—to be stronger than Hyuuga Neji."

Her heart stopped.

It was possible for her to be stronger than him? No way…

She swallowed again and mustered, "What…d-do I do in return?"

"Simple," he replied. "You join the Akatsuki."

"T-that's all?" she asked, her mind racing. The Akatsuki was filled with notorious S-ranked criminals. Would she really give up everything she had worked so hard to achieve, just to become one of them?

"Keep in mind that your life is on the line," reminded Kisame.

She swallowed again, her throat increasingly dry. What could she do?

"If you're thinking that you can fight us and survive, you're sorely mistaken," said Itachi. "You have great potential, and I can be honest when I tell you that training under the Jounin of this village will not get you anywhere."

"N-Neji…can…is…"

"Neji is not like you," replied Itachi softly. "He is a born genius; but you, you can be one if we mold you, train you, make you into something amazing. If you come with us, we can promise you that in a year, you will have the ability to defeat anyone you come into combat with—including Hyuuga Neji."

She licked her lips.

"Did we mention the money?" asked Kisame with a smirk, knowing now that they had her hooked.

"M-money?"

"Enough to keep your family secure and safe, and for you to have as many clothes and jewels as you want," he replied.

Her hands began to shake.

She closed her eyes and thought the proposition over. If she went with them, she would not only have power, but money, her family would be safe, and she would get the satisfaction of one day returning to Konoha and defeating Neji in combat.

If she didn't go with them, she would die, not to mention embarrass her name by being unable to defend herself against these two. Even in death, she would not be free from Neji's all-seeing eyes. He would see that she had been unable to fight back and survive. He would see, and he wouldn't care.

She swallowed again, and for some reason, the moisture had returned to her throat. She felt sure in her reply.

"I'll do it."

Itachi nodded and said, "Get what you need and come with us."

She felt her limbs come back to her, as if they had never been there before, and she raced around the room, collecting her scrolls and books, whatever she could carry.

"Alright," she said after stuffing everything into her pack. She slung it over her shoulder and looked at the two S-ranked criminals. "I'm ready."

Itachi lifted a kunai and with a flick of his delicate wrist slashed the Konoha sign on her headband. "_Now_ you're ready."

They jumped out of the window, Tenten taking one last look at her room and her home. She smiled, though it was shaky, and followed them out towards the city gates. Once there, she took one last look at Konoha, and then disappeared into the dark trees.

She was ready to become everything her family had expected of her. They didn't have to know how she did it, as long as she did it.

To be continued…

Well, sort of. The follow-up fic is called, "Acceptance of Fate."

Please review for the love of all that is holy :( If you have time to read it, you have time to type up 1-3 sentences on it!

If you review me, I'll review you! It's karma people!


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